How to view your town’s history when sitting on the wall in the event plaza

animal-crossing-new-leaf

I read a realted question about viewing your town's history in New Leaf, but it didn't fully answer the question.
Apparenlty in new leaf if you sit on the wall by the tree in the event plaza you get to view your town's history. In a previous question it was said 500 hours + 500 days, but someone else said they could get it with 50 hours + 50 days. I've been playing since the game was released and I have about 180+ hours.
So my questions are:
1. how long do you have to have played to view the history?
2. are the days measured in the days you have played or the the number of days that have passed since you started the game

Best Answer

The tree in your town has to grow to around "full size" before you can see history. An actual full size town tree takes 500 days and 500 hours, but in the case of history, the tree needs to be around the same trunk width as a regular tree in your town to be big enough for you to see the history of your town. When you have a full sized trunk, you just need to wait for the adequate number of leaves before you can view history.

A full sized tree (500 days, 500 hours) has a LOT of leaves.

Town Tree

Now, if you have three bunches of leaves on your tree, like this:

Oak Tree

You're at 20 hours and 20 days. This is when your tree is "full size" trunk wise. However, you will have to wait until your tree has five bunches of leaves on it (50 days and 50 hours) to see your town history. See the Animal Crossing Wikia Plaza page, where the major stages of growth for your tree is laid out. Also, here's a picture of what your tree should look like by 50 days and 50 hours:

Viewing the History

The tree grows depending on the days and hours you've played. So if you start the game and the never play for 500 days and 500 hours... your tree won't grow. The more you play, the more the tree grows.